Successful transfer of Sandia National Laboratories´ outdoor test technology to TÜV Rheinland Photovoltaic Testing Laboratory

Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) has observed an increased demand for high accuracy outdoor photovoltaic (PV) module characterization using Sandia´s Photovoltaic Array Performance Model. To meet this demand, Sandia entered into a competitively-bid agreement in May 2009 with TÜV Rheinland Photovoltaic Testing Laboratory (TÜV-PTL) to transfer Sandia´s capability to fully characterize standard, commercial-scale PV modules. Sandia and TÜV-PTL worked closely on two round-robin experiments and months of subsequent work and discussions that resulted in module performance output calculations agreeing to within +/-2.5%.